#FixCopyright: The Myth of the Value Gap Simply Explained

Copy explains the so-called ‘value gap’. The issue at stake is the liability of online platforms for content uploaded by their users that could infringe copyright, packaged under the label ‘sharing of value’. Under the disguise of a copyright review, the European Commission sneaked in a proposal imposing obligations for online platforms to filter user upload content to fix this ‘value gap’. Can you imagine getting strip searched on the Internet? The filtered content could be anything: GitHub code, Wikipedia contributions, documents shared on Dropbox, etc.. You name it, the EC wants industry to filter it. In practice this would require that online platforms extensively monitor anything being uploaded and delete it if it could generate a legal risk. This threatens human rights protected by European and international law, and would result in a huge ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression, massive private censorship, and undermine innovation and competition.